Outline of Avasyaka Literature

Author(s): Ernst Leumann, George Baumann
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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E. Leumann, An outline of the Avaśyaka literature
Sanskrit literature. He was the Secretary of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, from 1811 to 1832 and founded the Sanskrit College at Calcutta in 1824. He became the first Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford and was appointed as librarian at the India Office in 1836. Besides being the author of a Sanskrit-English dictionary, Wilson translated several Sanskrit texts for the first time.
p. II [I'19] “Brockhaus": Hermann Brockhaus (1806-1877) is referred to by Leumann in connection with two important aspects of his activity: his editorship of the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft (also known as the "German Oriental Journal”) and his work on Somadeva's Kathāsaritsāgara. He published the Sanskrit text in several instalments, from 1839 onwards, in the ZDMG.
P. II [T°21] "Benfey": Theodor Benfey (1809-1881) is referred to by Leumann in connection with the work for which this versatile scholar, who wrote on various linguistic topics, is best known: his pioneering work Pantschatantra, Fuenf Buecher indischer Fabeln, Maerchen und Erzaehlungen (1859), the introduction of which paves the way for a comparative approach to this wide corpus and exploits both Oriental and Occidental traditions extensively. Benfey was of the opinion that India is the source of all the tales.
p. II [I36-37] "the majority of the Jaina manuscripts in England were collected with scholarly enthusiasm by three German scholars in India and brought to Europe": they are Georg Bühler, Eugen Hultzsch (referred to again with respect to his German origin on p. IV [II', heading “O”) and Rudolf Hoernle, to whom could be added Hermann Jacobi who sold his collection of Jaina manuscripts to the then British Museum in June 1897.
p. II (1941-42] "Sir Alfred Lyall, Sir M. Grant-Duff, Whitley Stokes, Bühler and Rost": Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall (1835-1911), a literary historian and poet, joined the Indian Civil Service in 1856 and had a long and diverse career in India. In particular, he was appointed as the Governor General's agent in Rajputana in 1874 and was Foreign Secretary to the Government of India from 1878 to 1881 (see Riddick 1998, p. 222).
- Sir Montstuart E. Grant-Duff (1829-1906) served as Governor of Madras and was Under-Secretary of State for India from 1868-74. He toured India in 1874 and wrote Notes of an Indian Journey, 1876 (see Riddick 1998, p. 222). - Whitley Stokes (1830-1909) was a British lawyer who occupied official positions in India in the field of law from 1862 to 1882. He was President of the commission on Indian law from 1879 to 1882. He was also a scholar who worked in the field of Irish philology and literature (see Riddick 1998, p. 349). – Dr. Reinhold Rost (1822-1896) was German and studied in Jena. He was the Librarian of the India Office, Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society and died in London. - This list of names shows that Leumann did not hesitate to contact the highest authorities. We see from other examples in his life that he was keen on trying to convince the authorities to establish new rules when he thought they were not favourable to scholarly activity...
P. II [I'56] Aparājita, whose name is mentioned several times in the Übersicht, is the commentator on the Bhagavati-Arādhanā (also known as Mūlārādhanā), an extremely important Digambara work written in Jaina Sauraseni which is the starting point for the so-called Arādhanā-kathākośas.
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